Billy Kametz

Billy P. Kametz ( March 22, 1987 – June 9, 2022) was an American voice and stage actor. He was best known for his work dubbing anime and video games. Kametz began his voice acting career in 2016. He provided the English voices for Josuke Higashikata in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Takuto Maruki in Persona 5 Royal, Naofumi Iwatani in The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Ferdinand von Aegir in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Kametz died from colorectal cancer at the age of 35.

Early life
Kametz was born on March 22, 1987, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He had a sister. He attended West Chester University.

Career
In 2016, Kametz moved to Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles to play Aladdin in the final performance of Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular. While living in California, Kametz began working as a voice actor. He achieved one of his first major roles when he was cast as Josuke Higashikata in the Viz Media dub of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. He went on to voice other prominent roles, including Colt in Brawl Stars, Takuto Maruki in Persona 5 Royal, Galo Thymos in Promare, and Ren in Pokémon.

In 2020, for his performance as Naofumi Iwatani in The Rising of the Shield Hero, Kametz won the Best VA Performance (EN) award at the 4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Apart from animations, he also provided his voice for many characters in various related video games.

Personal life
Kametz dated voice actress Erica Lindbeck.

Cancer and death
On April 26, 2022, Kametz revealed that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer ten weeks prior, which had metastasized to his liver, lungs and spine, and that he had begun chemotherapy and radiation therapy. He also announced that he would be taking a hiatus from voice acting and moving back to Hershey, Pennsylvania. A GoFundMe page was posted on May 1, 2022, to help cover travel, insurance costs, medical bills not covered by insurance, and everyday life necessities; these online fundraising efforts yielded more than US$184,000.

Five weeks after the fundraiser was launched, Kametz died on June 9, 2022, in Hershey, Pennsylvania at the age of 35.